Zimbabwe in 2005

(2005 est.): 12,161,000, of which about 3 million–4 million people might be living outside the country

Capital:

Harare

Head of state and government:

President Robert Mugabe

The parliamentary elections held on March 31, 2005, were preceded by dire predictions from critics of the government both inside and outside Zimbabwe who maintained that free and fair elections would be impossible. The Southern African Development Community’s observer mission, the only foreign group permitted to monitor the elections, drew attention to several matters that, it said, should be investigated but nevertheless praised both the behaviour of voters and the conduct of the elections. SADC concluded that the result reflected the free will of the people of Zimbabwe.

Of the parliamentary seats determined by voters, the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front won 78 and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) 41. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC, immediately claimed that there had been massive vote rigging, pointing to the serious discrepancies between the number of people registered as having voted and the total number of votes cast for the candidates, but his call for fresh elections was ignored.

Western critics were incensed in late April by the news that Zimbabwe had been reelected to the UN Human Rights Commission. They were angered too when on May 19 the government launched a cleanup campaign that involved the destruction of thousands of shanty dwellings on the outskirts of Harare and other urban centres. Ten-year-old Nashel Chisvo looks at what is left of his house in Porta Farm, west of Harare, after the Zimbabwean government razed it as part of campaign to eliminate “illegal” structures and shantytowns in the country.APCritics were quick to claim that this was a punitive measure aimed at the supporters of the opposition, who were mainly located in the towns, while churches and other charitable bodies denounced the manner in which thousands of people were made homeless. In June Pres. Robert Mugabe announced a scheme to build two million replacement houses in the next five years, but UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had already dispatched Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, a Tanzanian, on a fact-finding mission to investigate the cleanup program. Her critical report was submitted a month later, but Mugabe cast doubts on her impartiality, citing an earlier comment by U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, his arch critic, that Tibaijuka would “do a good job.”

A proposal in May by the governor of the Bank of Zimbabwe to invite back some of the white farmers whose land had been seized under the government’s land-reform program was rejected by Mugabe, who in July flew to China to solicit financial support. His efforts bore little fruit, and the Zimbabwe dollar consequently fell to an all-time low.

The courts retained a considerable degree of independence and in May, despite government opposition, released the 62 alleged mercenaries who were said to have been plotting to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea. The detainees had been jailed in Zimbabwe on various charges of immigration infringement and security regulations. In August all charges of treason leveled against Tsvangirai were dropped, but any hopes that this might lead to talks between the opposition leader and Mugabe were immediately quashed by the president. Mugabe then demonstrated his contempt for the opposition by arbitrarily creating a Senate, or second chamber of the parliament. His move was effective; it caused a serious split in the MDC between those who wished to challenge Mugabe by voting for their own candidates in the Senate elections and the supporters of Tsvangirai, who insisted on boycotting the elections.

At a farewell banquet Benjamin Mkapa, the retiring president of Tanzania, voiced the opinion of several African leaders when he said that they should be guided by elders such as President Mugabe and not be dictated to by the West.